Monday, January 07, 2013

The FCC
is soon expected to release its 16th Wireless Competition Report. Those reports are a useful resource
of industry and consumer activities and trends in wireless services.

In a pair
of Perspectives from FSF Scholarsessays
I have criticized the 14th and 15th Wireless Competition Reports. The last two reports have not
included any FCC overall assessment of whether or not the wireless market is
"effectively competitive," though the statute's directive appears
calls for such an assessment. (Prior reports, including the 13th
Wireless Competition Report, concluded that the wireless market is effectively
competitive.) Also, the last two reports have declined to take even a
modest look at whether intermodal competition has competitive effects on
wireless services and prices. I expanded on the critiques offered in
both Perspectives essays in a law review article I wrote for CommLaw
Conspectus titled
"Seeing Competition, Eyeing Regulation: FCC Wireless Policy Following the Fifteenth
Report."

In the coming
days we will see if the 16th Wireless Competition Report finally overcomes the defective
aspects of its predecessors.